The Life Reconfiguration
by ElfinElina
Summary: They say that your life can change in an instant.
1. Pilot

**This is the pilot chapter for my new Big Bang story. Although I'm not entirely satisfied with this chapter, it gets the gist of what I want to start with out in the open. Please review!**

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><p>She had no idea how any of this had happened. She didn't know where they had been going, or why. She recalled one of Sheldon's characteristic rants, then her head smacking into the window as the bright city lights spun outside the windows of the car. Someone calling to her through the busted window. Red and blue flashes as two ambulances arrived to take Leonard and Sheldon away on stretchers. Pleading with the driver to let her go too even though she had walked away unscathed. Staring down at the great Dr. Sheldon Cooper's rapidly bruising, unconscious body because Leonard was in too serious a condition for her to ride with. He wasn't even breathing when the EMTs arrived at the scene.<p>

Upon arriving, a kindly, gray haired nurse asked her for Leonard, Sheldon, and her's information quickly before escorting her to a small, dimly lit room similar to what you might find in a typical doctor's office. She didn't even have time to see where the boys were being taken. The nurse shined a light in her eyes, took her blood pressure and heart rate, and confirmed that Penny had indeed come away unharmed. She had no idea what was happening to her two friends, or if they were even still alive. Picturing Sheldon as he had looked in the ambulance brought the sting of tears to her eyes. Sheldon was never supposed to break. He was a genius. He wasn't supposed to get hurt, ever. She had always seen him as the strong one of the group, never affected by anything. But there he had been, unconscious, battered, and bruised, strapped into a stretcher right in front of her. She could only imagine how Leonard had looked…

After spending what seemed like an eternity in the small room to compose herself, Penny wandered out into a sterile, unwelcoming waiting room in a daze. Her head hurt. It was hard to tell how she was feeling; everything seemed to be a blur. She never remembered feeling unhappy in a hospital; all of her experiences with them were the birth of her friend's, mother's friends, and sister's babies. However, she'd never seen the emergency side of things. Glancing around the room, the walls were a sickly mint green, the chairs were white plastic, and the small TV hooked up in the top corner of the room was crackling with interference. The only other person in the room was an elderly man who sat in the far corner, staring out into space. Imitating him, she sat in the opposite corner, trying to remember details. What time was it? It had been dark when they were driving. It had to be late. Thinking hurt, so she gave up and sat with her head in her hands.

"What happened to you?" she heard a voice say. The old man. He was staring at her through soft grey eyes.

"Car wreck." She left it at that.

He nodded. "You and two guys?"

She blinked. "Yeah. How did you…?"

"I saw you come in behind them. They didn't look so good. You didn't see, but one of them came around just before that nurse took you away."  
>She look up. "What?"<p>

"The tall one. He was reaching for you."

_Sheldon. _"Oh, god…" she started. Her breath came in gasps and the enormity of what was happening finally hit her. "He-I-I should've seen-" She couldn't articulate how terrible she felt. He needed her and she didn't even see.

"It's alright," the man's voice softened. "He'll understand."

Just then a male doctor in a long white coat poked his head into the room and asked, "Penny Cooper?" Confusion. Cooper? That wasn't her name. Then she'd realized she'd told the gray haired nurse she was Sheldon's wife. Wait, why the _hell_ did she do that?

"Um...yes?"

The doctor smiled. More of a grimace. "Come with me please."

She stood and wiped the clamminess from her hands onto her jeans.

"Good luck, kid," the old man gave her a fatherly wink of her way out.

Penny followed the doctor out of the room and into the hallway. Suddenly, a chill ran through her body and she realized the doctor could be about to tell her terrible news. She stopped in her tracks, but he took it in stride and stopped to talk to her.

"Mrs. Cooper-"

"I'm not his wife," she cut him off.

"But it says here..."

"I'm not. I don't know why I said that." Why was she worrying about this now? "Just call me Penny."  
>The doctor just looked at her for a few moments, and then began again. "Okay, Penny. I have good news, and I have bad news."<p>

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, then said, "Bad news first."

"Okay. The bad news is that both of your friends are seriously hurt. Mr. Hofstadter considerably more than Mr. Cooper. Mr. Hofstadter has a broken pelvis, a possible punctured lung, internal bleeding, and considerable head trauma. He is still in surgery, because we are unable to stop the bleeding. X-rays revealed that Mr. Cooper suffered fractured ribs, a broken clavicle, and both of his tibias -that is, the lower leg bones- were shattered. We've done as much as we can right now. He may never walk again."

Penny let out a huge breath and put her hands to her head. _Why couldn't it have been me?_ she thought to herself. Two of the greatest minds of the 21st century suffering so much pain while the loser girl from Nebraska walks away without a scratch. It just wasn't fair. She fought back tears, took a shaky breath, and asked, "What's the good news?"

"The good news is that Mr. Cooper is stable. However, we are going to put him under sedation so he won't be in so much pain tonight. He is awake right now and refuses to let us sedate him until he has seen you."

Penny almost smiled as she imagined Sheldon fighting with the doctors, then realized that he must be scared out of his mind. "Okay," she sighed. "I'll go see him."

"Alright. Follow me."

Penny followed, and then stopped. "Doctor?"

"Yes?"

"Will Leonard be okay?"

There was that smile-grimace again. "Mr. Hofstadter has suffered some very serious injuries. But I believe he has a chance once he is stable."

That, at least, made her feel a tiny bit better as she made her way to see Sheldon.

The doctor continued on about Sheldon's condition throughout the walk. "We're going to put several pins in his legs to hold the large parts of the bone together, but there are countless pieces of bone that have broken off and will not be able to reattach. We're afraid that losing that many fragments will compromise the integrity as a whole so that the bones may not be able to hold weight even after recovery." Penny nodded, but was only listening half-heartedly. She didn't want to hear about how much pain he was in or how he might never be the same. All she wanted was to tell him –and Leonard- that they would be okay.

Eventually, they reached Sheldon's room. "Here we are," the doctor motioned for her to enter the room as nurses filed out one by one to give them some privacy. "We've already given him the sedative, but it shouldn't take effect for another few minutes." Penny nodded. She had no idea what he would do or say or what to do or say in return. Taking a deep breath, she walked slowly into the room.

Sheldon looked terrible. Amid the countless scrapes and bruises were bandages and IV lines. His legs looked twice their normal size under the thin hospital sheets, and she hoped this was due to splints and not swelling, though she knew it was the latter. They had also wrapped his ribs. She had never seen anyone look so broken. Not realizing she'd stopped in the door to look over him, she stepped lightly to his bedside.

"Penny. You're okay."

"Yes, Sheldon, I'm fine," she whispered.

"How's Leonard?" he asked, breathing in gasps. The pain from his broken ribs was obvious.

"I don't know. Not too good."

He nodded ever so slightly, closed his eyes, and swallowed. He was losing the battle against the sedative. "Penny," he repeated, not opening his eyes. "It hurts."

Her heart broke. "I know, I know. It'll be okay though." She laid a hand on his, and he didn't even flinch, just looked at her through dull eyes.

"Go to sleep, sweetie," she soothed.

He wheezed slightly and mouthed, "Sing Soft Kitty."

She began without hesitation, and he was asleep before she could finish. She pressed a gentle kiss to his forehead before leaving the room. Once outside the doorway, she sobbed.


	2. Her Damn Fault

**Thanks to everyone that has reviewed the pilot chapter so far!**

**Okay, so I'm kind of on a writing spree because it's the weekend, but from now on I would expect probably a chapter every week (two weeks at the most). I would like to specify that this takes place after Penny and Leonard break up the second time, and before Bernadette and Amy come into the picture. I promise my upcoming chapters will have far greater attention to deal than these first few.**

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><p>Time was passing very, very slowly. The doctors tending to Leonard had brought out her stubborn streak when they told her go home and sleep, to get over the initial shock of the accident, that this was going to take a while. Defiantly, she seated herself back in the sickly green waiting room. Every now and then she looked at the clock, expecting at least a half hour to have gone by, when in reality it had only been five minutes. Out of nowhere, she wondered what had happened to the old man she'd spoken to earlier.<p>

More time passed. She was frustrated. Doctors were supposed to fix people. Why couldn't they fix Leonard?

Finally she decided that she had better take their suggestion, and informed the doctor that had taken her to see Sheldon that she was leaving. "Good idea, Mrs. Coo-Penny. We'll call you when Mr. Hofstadter is stable."

She stood outside the emergency room doors, wondering how she was going to get home. Flipping through her phone (which had miraculously remained intact in her pocket), she found Raj's number and sent him a text.

_You up? Leonard, Sheldon, and I were in an accident. Need someone to take me home from the hospital. _

He replied almost immediately, and if he was surprised it didn't show.

_Be there in 5._

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><p>Although things were usually awkward with Raj since he couldn't speak to her, the silence was oddly comforting on the ride home. She was relieved that he hadn't brought Howard, who would've tried to take advantage of her in her vulnerable state. Seeming to forget his muteness, the only thing Raj asked was, "Are they okay?"<p>

Sighing, she replied, "Sheldon's hurt, but doing okay. Leonard's bad."

He simply nodded and left her to her thoughts. At the end of the ride, he said, "I'll call their mothers."

"Thank you." Penny hadn't even thought about that. She wondered for a millisecond how Raj was going to accomplish that, then decided she didn't care as long as she didn't have to. A worried Mrs. Cooper wasn't what she wanted to deal with right now.

Penny glanced at the door of 4A as she let herself into her apartment. Staggering into the bathroom, she rested her forehead against the wall of the shower as she let the water run over her until it ran cold. Shivering, she wrapped herself in a huge pink bathrobe and perched on the side of her bed. Her phone was blinking like crazy. She had an idea who it was. She was right. Four missed calls from Mrs. Cooper, and two texts from Missy. She hadn't expected anything from Mrs. Hofstadter.

Grudgingly, she dialed Mrs. Cooper's number and was almost immediately greeted by Sheldon's hysterical mother. "Penny! Penny! That Indian fellow ya'll hang out with called and said my baby Shelly was in accident, what happened? Is he alright? Sweet sufferin' Jesus, I need to call my prayer group, book a flight, pack-"

"Mrs. Cooper!" Penny interrupted. "I don't remember exactly what happened, but I was driving- and- and-" Penny's stomach dropped._ She'd_ been driving. Not Leonard. She'd told the nurse Leonard had been driving. Why didn't she remember this before? Her head spun, and she felt as though she were going to be sick. All of this was her damn fault.

"Hello? Penny?"

She fought back the rising nausea in her stomach before answering.

"Sheldon's hurt, but he's okay. Broken ribs, broken collarbone, and broken legs. They put him under for the night so he could sleep, but I saw him before they did."

"Sweet sufferin' Jesus," Mrs. Cooper repeated. "What about the other guy, Leonard? The Indian kid said something about him."

"Yeah. He's not good," she said bluntly.

"Ah," Mrs. Cooper replied softly. "Well, I'll ask the Good Lord to stay on both of their sides. Anyhow, I'll be there sometime tomorrow."

"Alright, Mrs. Cooper. I think Sheldon's going into surgery for his legs tomorrow."

"That don't matter none. You tell me when he goes in if I'm not there, ya hear?"

"I will." Penny heard the receiver click.

She dropped the phone and sighed from pure exhaustion. She'd assumed Raj had told Howard what happened, and that Mrs. Cooper would tell Missy, so she didn't bother to pick it up again.

Suddenly, every detail of the accident replayed itself clearly in her head. Leonard was in the front seat on their way back to the apartment. Sheldon was cramped into the back, once again rambling on about how dangerous it was to drive with the check-engine light on. She'd gone to the movies with them. She was going 43 miles per hour in a 40 zone, not speeding. The light had been green as she entered the intersection. Then a huge truck rammed into the passenger's side, shattering the glass of both windows. The car was spinning. Then everything was silent and still.

Deciding she was not going to be able to sleep in her own bed tonight, she fished out the boy's spare key from the chaos of her room and let herself in to their apartment. Locking the door behind her, she grabbed a shirt from one of Sheldon's drawers, and curled up with it in Leonard's bed. The hospital still hadn't called.

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><p>In the morning she woke with a vague unpleasant feeling, and an oddly comforting smell that she couldn't identify filled her nose. The events of the previous night-or rather, earlier that morning- came rushing back to her and she buried deeper in one of Sheldon's countless superhero shirts and pulled the covers of Leonard's bed closer around her. After fighting the urge to lay this way all day, she got up and checked the blinking light on her phone. It was a voicemail. She dialed 1 and heard the doctor in the white coat's voice.<p>

"Penny, this is Dr. Warner from the hospital." So that was his name. "I'm calling to inform you that Mr. Hofstadter is currently stable, although he has fallen into a coma. He will be in the intensive care unit for the next few days. Visiting hours are from 9am to 9pm."

Penny let out a long sigh and some of the heavy weight pressing on her lifted. Leonard had pulled through the operation. But he wasn't out of the woods yet. She decided she'd better let Raj and Howard know and sent each of them a text that read,

_Leonard's stable, but in a coma. Come to visit them today, Sheldon's getting surgery._

From Howard: _Is Sheldor going to bitch the whole time? _

She wanted to punch him, but realized making jokes was probably his way of dealing with the situation. She sent back, _Just come._

_Oooh, kinky._

She rolled her eyes_._

From Raj: _Let me know when he's out of surgery, I'll be there._

At least one of them cared.

Looking at the clock on Leonard's night stand she realized the time was well past nine o'clock. She didn't know if Sheldon's sedatives had worn off yet, but she knew she should probably get to the hospital as soon as possible. She thought she ought to bring both of them some things to make them feel more at ease in the cold, sterile hospital rooms, so she hurriedly pulled a few comic books from each of their respective collections, grabbed Sheldon's laptop and charger, and pulled a blanket of off each of their beds. While in Sheldon's room, she noticed a soft fluffy paw sticking out from under his bed, and she pulled it out to reveal a well-loved stuffed cat. Smiling to herself, she hid it away in the bag along with his laptop, and called a cab.


End file.
